In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

In our fallenness, and our distractedness, somehow we human beings are so obsessed with details, and small things. We are very interested in paying attention to minisculi: little, tiny things. We want to know how to do things exactly right. Another big thing we get into trouble with is that we always try to take shortcuts. (Historically, this is our way: we have never changed. In the history of the human race we have learned nothing.)

We try to take a shortcut into the Kingdom of Heaven. How could we have some sort of fire insurance (so to speak), so that we could get into the Kingdom of Heaven? What are the sorts of things we have to do that would satisfy God so that we would get into the Kingdom of Heaven? Human literature is full of such things. It isn’t as if I haven’t heard such things in confessions over all these years. It’s all the same. Human beings are always doing the same thing: What do I have to do? What will satisfy God? We are always looking for these little, concrete sorts of insurance.

However, these concrete sorts of insurance things don’t work at all. There is no kind of series of good deeds or ten thousands of prostrations every day maybe (if you like to do such physical things) or other things like that. No kind of tinkering like that will get anyone of us into the Kingdom of Heaven. We have to recall what are the fundamentals of our faith if we hope to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Who is Jesus Christ, Himself? What is it all about?

In the first place, there is no human being that is good, as such. Even the Saviour, Himself, says in the Gospel: There is no-one good, except God (cf. Matthew 19:17). So, if we go around thinking that we are good, we are already “out to lunch”. There is no-one good, except God. Where is our hope, then? Our hope, actually, is in God. How does God reveal Himself to us, in the first place? He reveals Himself to us as love. He has always said to us that that is WHO HE IS. In the Epistles of the Apostle John, it is said explicitly: “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). From the Old Testament times, the Lord has been saying to us that the relationship between us, and Him has to be a relationship of love.

If we are going to live, we have to live in love. So, the introduction to the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament starts out: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). If you love God like this, then your life will be according to the Ten Commandments. You won’t have any other gods, except the one, true God. You will respect your parents; you will honour the Sabbath Day; you won’t kill, and you won’t steal, and so forth. Those are just characteristics of a person who lives in a relationship of love with God. Because of this loving relationship, God gives us the ability to live a life in such a way that we fulfill those ten characteristics. They are not just suggestions. They are ten, clear characteristics of what the life of a person is like who loves God.

When the Lord, the Saviour, put flesh on His love (because He is the Word of God, who spoke everything into being, and He still does speak everything into being), and became a human being, then He, Himself, showed us how this love works in human relationships. He was also supported by His Mother. She is a completely human being, and she is the only person who has lived this really perfect example of how a lover of God should behave. That is why she is also called for us the image of the Church, the example of the Church. She is our example of how to live.

When we see the Saviour in the Gospel, He is showing us how a lover of God should be living. A concrete example today is with these ten men who have leprosy. Leprosy is a horrible disease. It is a disgusting disease in which one is like the living-dead, rotting while still alive. After a long time your fingers, and toes start to fall off. If you live that long, your nose, and your ears probably fall off. It is a kind of flesh-eating disease, you could say. It is a really horrible disease. Actually, that was the case right up until about one hundred years ago. If you had leprosy (people still get it, but now they have treatments), you would have lived in some kind of leper colony, off by your lonesome. There used to be one of them in Hawaii. There was a famous Catholic saint who had a leper colony there, and was looking after them. It’s not that long ago that it was exactly the case as it was according to the lives of these ten lepers that we are hearing about today.

The Lord, in His love, healed the ten lepers. He restored them to complete health. Maybe all of us are not given the Grace of God to go around healing people, physically speaking. Even if it were the case, it is not we who are healing these people. It is the Lord who is doing all the healing. It is true that people, through prayer, are healed of all sorts of horrible diseases. I just heard last week of one bishop who was anointing one of his parishioners at an unction service last year. She was a very forward kind of person, and she had an inoperable cancer on her chest somewhere. She went to the bishop at the time of the anointing. He started to anoint her forehead. Then she said: Not there! She opened her shirt, and said: There – anoint it there. He anointed her, and immediately the cancer disappeared, just like that. This woman was one of those irascible people with a very strong personality. She was not the bishop’s favourite personality, because she was so strong a person. However, somehow she knew that it was the time of the Lord’s love. There are examples of women in the New Testament who are like this. They know, and they approach the Lord, and say: Now. Now. Now. So, she did that. She came; the bishop anointed; the Lord gave. That’s the whole point: it is not because the bishop did something, because he didn’t even like her. The Lord gave. It was a sacramental moment, and the Lord gave. The Lord does touch people in all sorts of situations under different sorts of circumstances. He loves us. He touches our lives.

However, He expects you, and me, because of this loving relationship that we all have with each other, to be agents of this love in the same way. So, if someone is sick amongst us, then we should be asking the Lord to do something. Sometimes, because He is the One who knows what is right, He will help. He will do something. He really will. I have seen people healed because other people pray. I have seen it happen many times, and not just in isolated, occasional circumstances. I have seen it happening very much.

Perhaps you know about the intercession list that we are trying to circulate in the diocese every year. There are people who are praying daily for clergy, and people in the diocese. Because people are praying, I have seen things happening in the diocese for the good that would not otherwise happen. I can see where it comes from – people are praying. They love the Lord. They love each other, and they pray to the Lord for each other.

The weakness of these ten lepers is the same weakness that “dogs” all of us: instant forgetfulness, and instant ingratitude. Nine of the lepers went off healed, and only one came back, and said thank-you. The one who came back, and said thank-you, if you pay attention, was a Samaritan. For the Jewish people, a Samaritan was a real outcast. There are no modern-day comparisons for such a person. Our modern, Canadian society is so easy-going about everything that there is no-one who is an outcast like that in Canadian mentality. For the Jewish people of that time, however, Samaritans were considered to be some kind of foreigners, even though, technically, they believed in the same God. They had not co-operated with the centralisation of temple worship in Jerusalem a long, long time before, and they insisted on keeping their own temples in Samaria. They were considered outcasts, as the Saviour said, and foreign. It was worse than that, because they were treated like dogs. You were considered to be defiled if you had anything to do with a Samaritan.

Yet, at the same time, you notice in the Gospel that Samaritans are referred to by the Lord as examples, such as the Good Samaritan. Unlike the priests, and the other “high-pockets” of the day, who walked by the man lying there as good as dead, this Samaritan came, and looked after this Jewish man. His brethren should have been looking after him, but they were afraid, and didn’t want to get involved. (Modern Canadians would say: Don’t get involved – just walk by.) This Samaritan, who was a lover of God, came, and showed them the right way. He picked up the man, and saw to his recovery at his own expense. The Samaritan today is the one who comes, and says thank-you.

When the Lord is talking about the Samaritans, He is talking about you, and me, too. In the Jewish perspective, we are not Jewish by race, we are Gentiles according to Jewish reckoning. That means we are not physical descendants of Abraham. At the same time, the Church is the new Israel, so we are the spiritual children of Abraham. We don’t get off the hook about anything that is required of Israel. We, in our own way, by extension, are still the chosen people. We have to keep all these things in mind.

The Apostle, in his words to the Colossians today, is saying again to us that this relationship between us, and the Lord has to be chiefly love. He said: Take up love chiefly above everything else, and in the context of this love, give thanks for everything. The Christian way, in the context of this love, is all about giving thanks for everything. That’s why, in pious Ukrainian customs, you are always hearing people say: “Glory to God” for everything that happens that is good. The product of this love is to do good things, just as the Good Samaritan did. It’s not just lip service. You have to put into concrete form the expressions of this love. A really serious Orthodox Christian, who is being thanked directly for doing something good, will say: “Glory to God” or “To the glory of God”, and will not accept the thanks directly. This is because we know that on our own, by ourselves, we don’t have the strength to do what is really good. We know that it is the Lord, who lives in us, that gives us the strength to be good, and to do good. It is He that is Goodness. Everything is referred to Him. Pious Ukrainian history, you can tell, is formed by the Gospel because of the way the people traditionally have spoken.

In Canada, when I was young (before we were so badly de-Christianised), it was actually a custom to be a bit like that. There were natural expressions that people used a long time ago in Canada to give glory to God for good things that were happening. Our Orthodox responsibility in this country is to bring back in fullness, and in the right way, this giving of thanks to God. We can only do that by just doing it ourselves, living it ourselves. If something good is happening, we must not be too afraid, too shy to say: Thanks be to God. When I grew up, “Thank God” was just an exclamation. It was me, giving thanks, myself (and not telling others to give thanks, as some might think). You see how our mentality has all changed. Now I have to say: Thanks be to God; glory be to God. May we all understand that what matters is that we give thanks.

Here, in the Divine Liturgy, we are doing this. We are giving thanks the way we are supposed to be doing. This Divine Liturgy is participating in the Divine Liturgy that happens in heaven perpetually, where there is constant glorification of God, and thanksgiving to God for everything that is good. He is Life to us. We give thanks, already touching the Kingdom of Heaven. We give thanks to the Lord for his love for us, and in giving thanks we glorify Him: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America